


Day Two Hundred Sixty-One || Place of Birth

by 365daysofsasuhina



Series: 365 Days of SasuHina 2019 [261]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 15:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20708450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/365daysofsasuhina/pseuds/365daysofsasuhina
Summary: Sasuke's history with Konoha is long and often dark...but at least, with her by his side, the future looks bright.





	Day Two Hundred Sixty-One || Place of Birth

His relationship with the place of his birth has long been...unsteady. When Uchiha Sasuke was a boy, Konoha just felt like...a village. He had no qualms with it, finding it - to his limited knowledge - to be a normal place for a boy such as himself to grow up. It was, of course, peppered with its own problems. Even at his young age, he knew vaguely of war, of the orphans it made, of the shinobi who lost their lives in its protection. But when one is grown in a place where such things are commonplace, it’s simply...normal. He had no reason to question it.

...nor did he question the treatment of his clan. For the most part, it went unnoticed. It wasn’t as if the Uchiha were openly glared at, spit on, or in any way mistreated by their fellow villagers. In all respects, they were like any other clan: attending the Academy, walking the streets, shopping, talking, living. But it did, at one point, strike him as odd, how...far back from the other clans they were: nestled into a rear corner of the village. But, given no reason to question it beyond the initial ponderings, he never much minded it.

Back then...he could never have dreamed all that went on in the background. Of how Konoha’s politics always seemed to leave the Uchiha at the bottom rung. Their subtle - and at times...not so subtle - mistreatment of one of their founding clans. The blatant bias when it came to new ordinances or positioning. How every Hokage had either been a Senju...or could be traced back to solid connections with a clan that not only ruled Konoha...but kept their old rivals under their heels.

The event only a few months after Sasuke’s birth - the unleashing of the Kyūbi - had been the final straw. The council, convinced of their guilt despite Fugaku’s pleading to believe they’d had nothing to do with it, began tightening the leash until the clan began to choke.

Fugaku never let this on to his younger son. It was Itachi and Itachi alone he burdened with the knowledge that the Uchiha had finally been made full pariahs, forever blamed for Konoha’s pitfalls, bearing the burden of Madara’s actions until it came to a head when the nine tailed fox was unleashed. Sasuke was left blissfully unaware...until the ripples caused by the failing negotiations between Fugaku and the council began to bleed through into their family.

The proud clan head refusing to back down and let his clan be treated as second class citizens. The suffering son pulled in two directions by his love of family, and his love of peace. With the apparent death of their cousin Shisui, the cracks in the dam began to widen. The rift between Itachi and their father deepened to a canyon. And eventually, Itachi made his choice...and ended the Uchiha save one.

Sasuke.

Being left in the empty, haunted corpse of his home, the ghosts of his family, left Sasuke feeling...hollow. It made him realize that home was only home...because his family had been there. Without them, Konoha was just...a place to stay.

And once it no longer served him to avenge the ones he loved and lost...he left it by the wayside. There were vague plans to return once all was said and done, but...his clan was gone.

...but then...he learned the truth. All that had been kept from him: by his village leaders, by his father, and by his brother. The reality of the lives of the Uchiha under the symbol of the leaf they’d helped build.

While he had grown detached from the place of his birth...Sasuke then wanted nothing more than to raze it to the ground. A place built upon the backs of his clansmen...and none more so than his brother. Such a place...enjoying peace while the gutters ran red with Uchiha blood...it did not deserve to exist.

He would destroy the Senju pillar of oppression...or die trying.

Of course, nothing is ever so simple. The war was quite the derailment to his plans...and even more so when it brought him face to face with the last person he ever expected to see again: Itachi. Their battle with Kabuto - and the subsequent telling of _his_ truth - left Sasuke...unsure of where to go from there. The interview with the Hokage helped him reach yet another new decision...but in the end, even that failed to go through.

Naruto always had such a nasty habit of getting in his way...but it proved one thing to him. If he wanted to do this - _really_ do this: bring justice to his clan - he couldn’t do so falling into the same trap they’d always fallen for.

Anger.

No...he’d have to do this the sensible way. Confront the council. Expose the truth. Clear out the shadows of Konoha’s underground, reveal his clan’s role in its successes...and finally earn justice against those who wronged them.

And ensure no one else would ever suffer the same fate.

Then, and only then, did he agree to return. Of course...it helped that, along the way, his brother was returned to him. And later, Shisui - having faked his death to evade his pursuers - brought their numbers up to three. It wasn’t the entire clan, as it should be...but it was more than Sasuke ever imagined after his brother’s death.

And then...there was the next generation. His niece and nephew were born within Konoha, the first new Uchiha in over a decade. And Sasuke would make sure that the place of their birth would never fall to the same shadows and secrecy of his own.

Nor would it for any children he himself chose to have. Of course...his hopes in that regard had mostly died. There was no one he’d ever felt romantically inclined toward. And with the attitude within Konoha still largely against him...he believed there would be no changing that.

Until...he became reacquainted with Hyūga Hinata.

Unlike most, her unique position granted her a kind of...understanding. Their childhoods shared more parallels than he’d ever cared to notice. Being second choice by their fathers and left to the wayside. Having genius brother figures with whom they held strained relations...only to lose them just as they reconciled. Both the second in line to their clan’s inheritance. And while Hinata’s clan was still alive and well, her position within hers meant the ability to have empathy: to put herself in his shoes. That perspective meant - along with their previous blank slate - that she was one of the few beyond his family to just treat him like...a person.

It was her help with the Hyūga that helped them rally the other clans into confronting the previous council, and ensuring that none of the other families of Konoha would ever face similar punishment for having the gall to seek what was owed them. And when the Hyūga became allies with their cousin clan, it was she who served as the mediator and voice of reason. Their circumstances led to more and more time spent together...and it was she who first volunteered when Sasuke proposed the combined Uchiha and Hyūga police force: to be the eyes that would watch the village from within, while Itachi and his ANBU would do so from the outside.

Though Hinata had never faced the same treatment by Konoha, she still struggled. Still understood - to a point - what Sasuke had gone through. And it was that understanding - that empathy, that kindness - that led to him falling rather haplessly in love with her. Yet another piece within Konoha that made it worthwhile to stay, and continue to improve with careful diligence. Only now...he would do so with her at his side.

The rest, as they say, is history

**Author's Note:**

> I am...super tired, so I'll be brief @~@ Mostly just introspective rambling about Sasuke's changing relationship with the village in which he was born. ALAS sees the Uchiha massacre addressed and brought to justice, unlike canon. I couldn't do my boys dirty and leave that hanging. So at least things have a chance to get better...and they do. Just...not immediately, ahaha~
> 
> Anyway, I really need to get some sleep (I barely got this done OTL), so that's all from me tonight~ Thanks for reading.


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